A Demon's Rise
by LightWriter2013
Summary: Lupa Rider never has been a run-of-the-mill girl; escaping the Hunger Games when she was 11 and blessed with some magic to control any mob...but how will she cope when an evil scientist bent on taking over the world captures her and takes her to his lab where he has been creating a hybrid army? Will Lupa escape, die, or join Dr King's evil cause? Or all three...?


**(Summary: Lupa is a 16 year-old orphan girl whose only living relative is an overprotective uncle- her parents went missing, recorded as dead, during the fall of the Hunger Games and the Capital. To deal with the stress of normal life Lupa goes out in the middle of the night to a small secluded clearing where she trains herself with swordplay. Usually everything goes well on her secret adventures...)**

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><p>Moonlight flowed over the tops of a forest, casting deep, dark shadows in an eerie way across the landscape. Bast flitted through the air, screeching and whistling as they made amazing stunts just to catch their dinner. Occasionally a groan would echo through the night, bringing to life the reality of danger and death in the nightly world as zombies gathered and stumbled over the land in an aimless quest to find food. An Enderman would suddenly teleport to the treetops, scanning the world before vanishing in a cloud of ender-dust to re-appear half a mile away, not ending a wide, circular path that rotated around the single area of golden light that rested on the farthest edge of the forest. A village, large, with over a dozen buildings, slept in the night; torches flickered in the slight wind to light up the desolate pathways so the iron golem keeping its silent vigil could watch for danger. It's joints whined and groaned with age as it turned ninety degrees to face the forest, eyes shifting and focusing on the darkness where sounds of fighting could be heard a ways off.<p>

Deep into the forest, in the densest part where the single pathway through was overgrown with disuse and choked by thorny bushes, a small clearing was concealed. Moonlight streamed into the open area that was currently filled with clouds of dust, making the area seem opaque. From the heart of the dust, a feminine figure fought with a sword in hand. Long hair trailed in the air as the figure gracefully lunged, parried, dodged, and lunged again, twirling in small circles and with light feet that made the fight look more like a dance.

With a sudden change in battle tactics, the girl stepped back, sheathed her sword, and jumped backwards, curling her spine backwards to reach the ground with her hands and push herself into a complete back-handspring. She landed lightly at the edge of the clearing, making the dust swirl through the air wildly. With only a slight pause to ensure her balance, the girl sprung back again, this time sliding behind the wall of bushes with no more than a slight rustle. In the blackness the girl reached up, grabbed a tree branch, and pulled herself up, rapidly climbing higher with speed and grace akin to a squirrel, only stopping until her head appeared over the treetops.

With moonlight clear of dust, the girl's head and face becomes suddenly visible. Dark hair with a purple tint flowed down her back and into the leaves, a few strands falling in front of her eyes and face. A small wind picked up, blowing the hair out of the way and earning a soft sigh from the figure. Her skin, lightly tanned, shined with sweat in the moonlight; a couple drops glinting like crystals down her brow. She breathed in slowly, sucking in the cool, crisp night air while she looked over the vast landscape. Her eyes were bright and almost appeared to glow in the dark lighting; the left a luminescent green, and the right a bright, fiery orange.

She dove her head back into the leaves, finished with her quick break, and practically started to fall down the tree. She guided her body down through gaps between branches, letting gravity pull her down until she reached the last branch, of which she crawled down until it swayed precariously under her weight. Letting a second pass to ensure her next move, the girl launched herself forward, swinging her legs forward to clear the leaves and give her momentum to fly forward; and fly forward she did.

The dust, partially settled to the ground, rose back into the air when the girl's feet hit and slid across the ground. Her sword was already out and she jumped forward, crouching low with her chest held froward as if ducking from an enemy attack, and sliding to the left. She stood upright, parrying fake attacks and slipping in some blows of her own. Suddenly she spun, holding her sword up as if deflecting an enemy blade. She bent backwards, acting as if forced to do so, then, with a shout, shoved forward and swung her sword from a side angle, slicing clean through the "enemy".

She didn't take time to pause as she imagined archers suddenly appear through the bushes behind her. She spun to the left, then to the right, and to the right again, this time using the movement to move closer. Eyes trained forward at two invisible targets she strafed back and forth until she reached the bushes where one "archer" was quickly stabbed and another slashed at. There was one more the girl imagined aiming an arrow at point-blank range and she froze, calculating her next move. The arrow was let loose and, quick as lightning, she turned out of the way, slapping a hand against the "bow" to knock it clear of the "archer" and making room for her to land a solid punch in what she imagined was the archer's face. A final downswing of her sword finished the fight.

She girl sighed, finally letting herself relax. An hour's worth of practice left her to practically gasp for air and her muscles to tremble with exertion; she almost dropped her sword as she slipped over the thick undergrowth to re-enter the clearing where the dust was attempting to settle. It only took a few minutes for the air to become clear enough to see clearly, thanks to a new night wind that started to blow through the forest. Before long, the clearing was filled with fresh air, and the girl was clearly visible; wearing a fitted black tank-top and matching short-shorts, both powdered thoroughly with pale dirt. Underneath the clothes was a well built body; one of a true fighter and competitor.

"Phew, that was a good one," the girl told herself as she walked to a log where a pile of clothes were left in a heap, "I think I finally perfected my handspring." She slid the sword, a well used wooden one, inside the log which had a small hollow in it, just large enough for the weapon, and started to take off her clothes, quickly changing into the clean orange tank-top and black sweats that were set aside. She didn't worry about anyone seeing her. No one ever went so deep into the forest at so late an hour, which, now that she thought about it, must have been close to two in the morning.

The girl, of whose name I should mention is Lupa, shrugged to herself, balling up the black clothes she was previously wearing and stuffed them inside the log with her wood sword. She figured they could take one more wearing before she had to clean them, which would be a whole new level of chore to do considering the closest water source that she had access to was the river going right through her village, and her uncle was always a tough person to sneak away from.

Lupa's uncle, Mark, was considered to be the leader of the village, and was Lupa's only living relative. Anyone could imagine exactly how protective he was of Lupa because of that. However, the majority of his over-protectiveness came, not because of Lupa's "abandonment", but because she had to endure the horrors of the Hunger Games when she was eleven. Sure, that was long past- six years in fact- but it didn't change the fact that it happened, and that Lupa was permanently scarred by the experience...

Lupa shook her head, clearing her thoughts. Uncle Mark was only trying to make sure she had a safe, happy life. Her little training exercises was something he considered to be dangerous because of the excess of evil mobs that roamed amongst the deepest trees at night. If he ever found out she had still been going out... Lupa shivered. No doubt he would ground her for life, and maybe even chain her to the house so she could only go as far as the village boundaries.

But he wouldn't find out, because Lupa needed her nights of seclusion to lose herself in her make-believe fights that helped to make reality a little easier to bear. She wasn't going to get hurt any time soon, so she kept going out every other night.

Lupa, making sure her sword and clothes were well hidden in the log, started to walk into the thick forest. She quickly made her way to her secret pathway she had cleared out specifically for her nightly trips, whistling while she walked. A zombie groan would interrupt her endless melody from time to time, but Lupa ignored it. Very few people knew of her two biggest secrets, one being that she had played in the Games, while the other was that she had magic. Lupa didn't have tons of it; just enough for her to have power over dangerous creatures. If a zombie was to ever approach her, all she would have to do would be to look into it's eyes for it to obey her bidding.

Of course zombies weren't the brightest and could only complete very simple orders like "walk that way" or "attack that person". Other creatures, such as creepers or spiders, could do a lot more complex jobs, though Lupa had never ordered anything harder than "go away"; she didn't completely feel comfortable with bending a creatures will to her own. It just didn't feel right, even for evil creatures.

Of course, Lupa could control any creature- if it has eyes it was possible; there was only one mob Lupa hadn't attempted to control. Endermen were strong creatures of magic and extremely vain. One look could easily offend them so badly they would try to kill to recover their pride. Even if Lupa could sneak a look at an Enderman's eyes, she doubted she could ever take control of their magic.

Lupa paused in her whistling, listening carefully for a sound to repeat. While she was in thought she could have sworn she heard a loud wing-beat, and had cleared her mind to pay better attention. Unfortunately no sound was heard beyond the usual.

"Hm..." Lupa hummed, shrugging while walking again. She was a few minutes away from the village now and didn't worry about being attacked by any mob, not so close to the border of the forest.

Suddenly a spider hissed and Lupa spun around to stare right at a larger than normal black-brown arachnid that was a mere meter away. Lupa growled at the creature, glaring into it's two main, blood-red eyes. It slowed its approach, stopping only feet away. Its legs trembled, like it was being held to the ground when it wanted to jump. It hissed angrily, trying to break Lupa's hold, but the teen refused its freedom, hissing right back. "You don't want to eat me. Go back to your nest." She whispered, watching with satisfaction while the creature slowly started to turn and crawl back into the forest. Lupa could feel her control weakening as it vanished and got farther away, but waited until all connection was lost before relaxing and looking around, perplexed, "What in the Overworld was a spider that size doing so close to the bord-"

The sound of snapping branches was Lupa's only warning before something dropped to the ground behind her and wrapped its arms around her neck and face. She struggled, immediately thrusting her elbow backwards towards her assailant's stomach. An overwhelming tingling sensation practically paralyzed her arm as her elbow collided with solid armor, and she cursed loudly.

"Just relax and all of this can be quick and easy." a male voice spoke loudly in Lupa's ear, to which she replied after pulling her mouth free of a suffocating arm, "Let me go!" and reached back to try and grab anything attached to the person's body to use as leverage. Around on either side of Lupa and the man, big black things kept flapping, loudly braking apart bushes and snapping branches from the surrounding trees, making short, strong gusts of wind that blew Lupa's long hair in front of her face.

"Stop fighting! By Notch you- Jazz, help me out here!"

Lupa, recovered form her harsh funny bone attack, reached to the side and grabbed a fist-full of what felt like leathery skin wrapped around stringy muscle and bone. She tugged hard and found satisfaction when the person behind her shouted in pain, loosening his grip which Lupa instantly slid from. Her assailant, a teenager from what Lupa could see, was wearing nothing but black clothes, had a crazy mop of short, black hair, and... "Wings?!" Lupa lost her grip on the edge of the wing she was holding, and stumbled backwards. Simultaneously her heel caught on an exposed tree root and the teen came at her, one of his large, black wings slamming into her chest and against a tree.

Lupa slumped against the base of the tree, groaning while gingerly wrapping her arms around her chest where she was sure several of her ribs were broken. A moment later she raised her head to be met by a stinging slap by the tip of a wing right across her face, blinding her with white pain while sending her to the ground.

"Father doesn't want her dead, Jarid."

Lupa opened her eyes and blurrily watched a teenage girl suddenly come out form the opposite side of the path.

"Where were you, Jazz? I needed-"

"You obviously didn't because you handled it very well," the girl, Jazz, remarked snarkily, "Don't tell me you couldn't have handled her," He voice went bubbly and quiet, like she was talking to a child, "Oh, did the little batty get his wing pulled? Oh, poor baby."

"Shut up, Jazz, and finish her off- she's not unconcious."

Jazz's red shoes came her way and Lupa attempted to push herself up. She ended up collapsing on her front which sent pain spiking around her chest form the broken ribs, making her gasp and cringe which only made the teen above her giggle. "Dear Lupa, don't worry. All of this will be over soon."

Lupa watched the red and black blur reach forward and place a hand firmly on her back between her shoulder blades, pushing down hard enough to make Lupa moan. "When you next wake up you will meet Father," Jazz pulled a hypodermic needle from her belt and, without pause, stabbed it into the base of Lupa's neck, quickly injecting the fluid inside, "Have a good night, Lupa."

Lupa's red light went off in her mind when she finally registered that Jazz had used her name, but, before she could think anymore on it, Lupa's mind grew foggy and her eyes slid closed as she fell into a deep sleep.


End file.
